Case Fan

[s3ds]

i just put two of these with a 7v mod into a HTPC is quiet but does not shift much air (with 7v mod)
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=326073
cheap

[Eden]

ok im thinking a zalman f3 for the rear and a noctua for on top (it seems the scythe's are equivalent quality but they dont have all that cool stuff about austrian engineering and oil lubricated bla bla and i'm a sucker for marketing )

sound ok?

or would two zalmans be ok in reality? i'd rather save a fiver to be honest

If you really want quiet I'd spend the extra fiver and get the noctua's.

I have the antec solo case, two 80mm noctua fans at the front, one 120mm noctua at the back, plus the noctua CPU cooler with a 120mm fan, runs whisper quiet and cool.

That said the zalmans will be quieter than the antec fans, so either way your PC should be a lot quieter.

[torsionSW]

I recommend the Scythe Kaze Jyuni fans, I have two running at 1000rpm in a Antec Nsk2400 case.

I didn't find YATE LOON fans that quiet in my case, they made a lot of 'turbulence noise' I cannot hear the Scythe fans.

[stuck]

fans arrived. in my opinion the zalmans are quieter than the s-flex although the s-flex is running 300rpm faster so thats probably a considerable factor


however what has become very clear is that the majority of the noise is in reality coming from my nvidia 7950 GX2. It has two little fans on it and they make a lot of noise. I'm thinking this is unavoidable?

[stuck]

to be honest it wouldnt suprise me if there is something wrong with the s-flex. it makes quite a whirr, i mean its quiet but there is definite running noise as opposed to the zalman which seems to be just the noise of air being pushed through. Also the s-flex arrived looking like its been opened before. The plastic wrapping was poorly stuck on as if someone had opened it and put it back in the plastic. Although it is chinese so perhaps after a long day at the sweatshop those hands are getting a bit shaky? although i would assume it is done by machine in which case what? its plastic stuck together with sticky tape so i dunno... anyway it looked dodgy to me

[LuckyNV]

What S-Flex did you get?

Scythe is a Japanese brand btw.

[KalC]

http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=373993

+1 used these on my case, great fans. Nice and quiet too

[stuck]

i got the s-flex E 1200 one

[LuckyNV]

I think its faulty then, the 1200rpm version should be very quiet in most computers.

I've got the F3 and the S-Flex F (1600rpm version) and with both on full speed the Zalman is definitely the loudest by far.

both undervolted down to 1200rpm they are similar in noise, very quiet/almost inaudible.

[stuck]

bear in mind the zalman is running with the resistor so at 900rpm.

is there any way of modifying the 7950 GX2 to run differently so i dont have to use those evil little fans? The 7950 i have is the really long one (about a foot) thats not the same looking as the gx2 but is essentially the same card, it was on offer from scan some time ago (about a year).... I could buy a new card although i think the one i have is still ok? would it be worth ugrading and spending ~£100?

[mishima]

I would go for a Yate Loon or Noctua P12. They are the best on the market.

[Pob255]

That's a normal 7950gx2, it's massive, and there were no aftermarket coolers for it apart from water cooling blocks, so yes your pritty much stuck.

edit: unless you try to bodge something together yourself, one of the things I was planning to do

A new gpu would be a pritty good idea, when the new series geforce 8xxx/ ati hd2xxx first came out the older 7950gx2 was still a good performer compaired to then however now with the hd4xxx and gtx2xx the old 7950gx2 is really showing it's age.

You'll need to push that £100 a bit
The 4850 is about £117 (ignoreing the plait which is very noisy) but they do run hot and most people will advise an aftermarket cooler which is going to push the price up another £20ish
the 9800gtx+ is still a nice card for the money, esp as scan have an "own" brand one for £117.48
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=853557
The stock cooler on the 9800gtx is very quiet, however it's not a stock cooler on that scan card so I've no idea what it's like.

Ebuyer.com
Powercolor 4850, £109, the cooler is said to be very good (they sorted out the 100% fixed fan speed from there 38xx coolers)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/150390

There's the good old 9800gt iChill £120
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/149065

For passive
9800gt (no idea what it's like)
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148188

And Scan have the Gigabyte 4850 1gb passive £137
http://www.scan.co.uk/Product.aspx?WebProductId=874141
CPU3D said it's better than the stock cooler
http://www.cpu3d.com/review/5924-1/g...roduction.html


Oh and if you got that 7950gx2 when it was on special offer that time for just over £100 then I hope you realise I hate you! I so wanted one but they sold out before I could get my order in I had a pre-order with scan for it for about a month before they finally said they couldn;t get any more